Attacking Iraq
Reader comment on item: Brent Scowcroft is Wrong: We Must Attack Saddam

Submitted by Irfan Khawaja (United States), Aug 23, 2002 at 11:46

I was against the first Gulf war, and I'm the sort of person who would look for
any excuse to be against a second one. I eagerly read General Scowcroft's
article for such an excuse, but didn't find one. General Scowcroft's article
depends on the incredibly implausible assumption that Saddam Hussein acts
by the principles of rational-choice--he'd never attack us unless he had some
clear, definable, risk-free utility-maximizing reason for doing so. OK, but what
if Saddam Hussein is a delusional, unprincipled psychopath amassing weapons
of mass destruction for no other reason than to detonate one in the US? I
don't see that General Scowcroft has even considered this obvious possibility.

I do wish the Bush Administration would make a fully articulated case for
war based on the danger of weapons of mass destruction--and that if they
decide on war, they declare it in the constitutional manner.

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